One Black Square

Many of my friends that took Communications Lab last semester either complained about this first project or commented on the tediousness of it. However, many of them now say that this is an excersize that allowed them to grasp the basics of the course and excel in their upcoming work. When first intoduced to the assignment, I was looking forward to working on this project and was excited to begin my exploration of concepts of visual design!

Here are some early concepts I created for this project! 

While developing ideas for this project, I was playing around with different shapes on Freeform. One design that I came across was this interesting visual pattern that reminded me of the moon in one way or another. The radial composition and vertical symmetry of this little experiment is something I wanted to maintain and continue exploring. 

 

 

Another visual pattern I came across while playing around on Freeform, was the usage of rectangles cut at different widths and arranged in a specific pattern to create an emerging element from the given arrangement. While creating an object with this method would’ve resulted in a more interesting outcome, forming a letter seemed like a good starting ground for the usage of this interesting design. 

 

 

Here are my final Thumbnails! 

With my thumbnails, I wanted to explore various methods of creating interesting patterns and designs with a 5cm X 5cm piece of black paper. I would then determine what worked best and what I liked the most in order to accomplish my best work for my final iterations of the projet. 

 

In these thumbnails, you can notice that both of the concepts I developed on Freeform were used and adapted to the new mehtod and dimensions. While creating the eliptical design on the paper, I ran into issues about what I could and should do with the remaining pieces of black paper. However, I liked the manner in which I incorporated them into the area as this layout, like professor Wu Wei mentioned, breaks the boundaries of conventionality and expands the image beyond the frame. 

 

In my second set of thumbnails, I, once again, experimented with different methods of creating interesting designs such as folding, repeatedely using squares and rectangles, and arranging four circles in a cool pattern. In another of my designs, the bottom left corner to be exact, I wanted to explore a more abstract concept, the interconeciton of two hands. However, I think my delivery wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be and the resulting product seemed a bit more concrete, like a window, rather than abstract, like I had originally intended. 

 

Here are my final works!

The pattern I used for this final work resembles one ofmy thumbnails. I wanted to try again and experiment further with this style of visual construction since I didn’t quite accomplish that in my first go at it. I feel quite satisfied with my end product as I think I created a unique piece that draws the viewer ‘s attention. Like professor Ian mentioned, one can see and appreciate the buildup throught the construction of the piece with how I carefully cut out the individual rings of paper. However, the break and division of the previously built up elements is what truly creates impact in the final piece. This is an element of my creation that I hadn’t noticed, yet one that allows me to appreciate it further. 

 

The pattern I created in this final iteration of my work resembles the first concept design I developed for this project. I decided to use this concept again as I  wanted to continue using this idea and further expand it. With this itteration, I wanted to illustrate the concept of creating a connection between a dichotomy of two highly contrasting yet slightly similar objects. I think this is quite an intriguing design and one I can further explore and perhaps incorporate in my future work.